On May 13, 2026, eToro (ETOR) released a first-quarter earnings report that presented a striking paradox: while the platform’s crypto-related revenue and trading activity cooled significantly, its leadership is leaning into the sector more aggressively than ever. Despite a cold front in the derivatives market, CEO Yoni Assia remains steadfast, predicting that Bitcoin and the broader market will surge toward all-time highs before the year is out.

Chill in the Crypto Financials

The numbers for the first quarter highlight a notable retreat in retail engagement. Revenue from crypto assets fell 38% year-over-year to $2.15 billion. The impact was felt most acutely in the high-leverage segment, where net trading income from crypto derivatives plummeted 57%, resting at $33.4 million.

This downward trend showed no signs of slowing in the early spring. Data for April revealed that the total number of crypto trades on the platform slid 32% compared to the same month in 2025, while the average amount invested per trade dropped by 22%. However, it wasn’t all red ink for the social trading giant. eToro’s overall net income actually rose 37% to reach $82.4 million, suggesting that the firm’s diversified cross-asset model is shielding it from the specific volatility of the digital asset market.

The “Buy the Dip” Mentality

While the charts might suggest a waning interest, Yoni Assia interprets the data through a more optimistic lens. Speaking to CNBC, Assia noted that when markets soften, the eToro user base tends to show resilience rather than panic. “Our data suggests that when the markets fall, retail investors on eToro actually buy the dip,” Assia explained.

Assia’s conviction is rooted in the belief that the current lull is merely a consolidation phase. He expects crypto engagement to reignite as prices trend back toward record levels, a shift he believes will be a primary driver for the platform’s performance in the latter half of 2026.

Strategic Expansion: New York and Zengo

Proving that its bullishness isn’t just talk, eToro has moved forward with two massive structural plays. The company officially activated its New York BitLicense, three years after it was initially granted, clearing the path for eToro to tap into the lucrative New York trading market.

Furthermore, eToro finalized its $70 million acquisition of self-custodial wallet provider Zengo on April 30. According to Assia, this move is central to the company’s vision of “bridging traditional finance with on-chain infrastructure.” By integrating Zengo’s technology, eToro aims to expand its footprint in prediction markets, perpetuals, and the wider decentralized ecosystem. Even as ETOR shares dipped slightly by 0.61% in pre-market trading, the company’s trajectory remains firmly pointed toward an on-chain future.

DeFi & FinTech, Markets & Trading, News

On May 13, 2026, the Coinbase-backed protocol x402 officially launched batch settlement, a pivotal feature designed to facilitate high-frequency payments for autonomous AI agents. By allowing agents to authorize numerous small payments off-chain and settle them later in bulk on-chain, the protocol aims to drastically reduce the overhead costs associated with machine-to-machine commerce.

Scaling Machine-to-Machine Transactions

Base creator Jesse Pollak highlighted that the new batch settlement functionality enables micro-payments as low as $0.0001. This price point is essential for the burgeoning agentic economy, where AI systems require on-demand resources such as compute power and model inference in real-time.

The technical flow, according to x402 documentation, requires the buyer to deposit ERC-20 funds into an on-chain escrow account. For each individual request, the agent signs an off-chain cumulative voucher. Sellers can instantly verify these vouchers and provide the requested service without waiting for on-chain confirmation. Periodically, the seller’s channel manager collects vouchers from various channels and redeems them in a single, batched on-chain transaction.

Joshua Nickerson, product lead at the Coinbase Developer Platform, noted that this process creates a gasless experience for the AI agents themselves. Because the facilitator of the transaction sponsors the costs associated with deposits, settlements, and refunds, the agents can operate with greater speed and lower financial friction.

Strategic Restructuring and Industry Adoption

This update comes just one week after Amazon Web Services (AWS) integrated the x402 protocol and wallet infrastructure. This partnership allows AI agents to utilize USDC for payments on the Base and Solana networks without requiring direct access to private keys.

The emphasis on AI infrastructure reflects a broader shift within Coinbase. On May 5, 2026, CEO Brian Armstrong announced a 14% reduction in the company’s workforce to restructure the organization around smaller, AI-focused teams that leverage automation tools.

x402, which is an open protocol based on the HTTP 402 Payment Required status code, has seen significant traction since its inception. In its first year, the protocol processed over 169 million payments, involving 590,000 buyers and over 100,000 sellers. While currently available in TypeScript and Go, x402 is expected to launch a Python implementation in the near future.

The Competitive Landscape for AI Rails

The launch of x402’s batch settlement occurs as other major crypto players accelerate their own AI-focused infrastructure. On Monday, stablecoin issuer Circle introduced a suite of tools for programmable USDC payments specifically for agents. Simultaneously, the Aptos Foundation and Aptos Labs committed $50 million to AI research and agent infrastructure, including projects like the on-chain order book Decibel and the storage protocol Shelby.

These developments, combined with Polygon’s recent move to reduce block times to 1.75 seconds, underscore an industry-wide race to build the primary financial rails for autonomous machine intelligence.

Ethereum, News, Technology & Security

On May 13, 2026, Charles Schwab officially began the rollout of spot Bitcoin and Ether trading to its first group of retail clients. The move integrates digital assets directly into the core brokerage experience for one of the world’s largest financial institutions, which manages over $11 trillion in client assets across nearly 40 million active accounts.

Seamless Integration and Execution

Under the new service, eligible clients can trade and view Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) alongside their stocks, ETFs, and other investments within a single account. The functionality is being deployed across Schwab’s web and mobile interfaces, as well as its professional-grade Thinkorswim platform.

To ensure institutional-grade security and liquidity, Schwab’s own banking unit handles custody, while execution is managed through Paxos. The service carries a transparent fee of 75 basis points (0.75%) per transaction. However, the initial rollout excludes residents of New York and Louisiana due to local regulatory considerations.

From Alternative to Standard Allocation

The launch marks a significant shift in market infrastructure. Analysts note that by bringing crypto into a mainstream brokerage environment, Schwab is removing the friction that previously forced retail investors toward dedicated crypto exchanges or indirect products like ETFs. As noted by the crypto news account HashNews, this is a signal that digital assets are shifting from alternative investments to standard allocations.

This strategic expansion comes on the heels of a blockbuster financial performance for the firm. Last month, Schwab reported a record first-quarter net income of $2.5 billion, a 30% year-over-year increase, providing the company with a robust balance sheet to support its push into the digital asset frontier.

Bitcoin, DeFi & FinTech, Ethereum, Markets & Trading, News

The Ethereum Working Group, a coalition including wallet developers, security firms, and the Ethereum Foundation’s Trillion Dollar Security Initiative, has officially launched an open standard designed to eliminate blind signing. This major user experience (UX) and security upgrade aims to make human-readable transactions the default across the Ethereum ecosystem.

The initiative builds upon existing work, specifically the ERC-7730 standard pioneered by Ledger. It introduces a comprehensive framework that combines a descriptor schema, a neutral registry, a flexible attestation model, and developer libraries. Together, these tools allow transaction data to be verified and clearly described before a user ever confirms a sign request.

High Cost of Hexadecimal Transactions

For years, the lack of transaction legibility has been a primary vulnerability in the ecosystem, contributing to billions of dollars in losses. Blind signing occurs when a user is forced to approve a transaction represented only by a string of hexadecimal code, which requires significant technical expertise to interpret.

The 2025 Bybit hack is a stark example of the dangers of this status quo. In that instance, a single contract change that was not legible on a hardware device resulted in a $1.5 billion loss. By implementing ERC-7730, the working group aims to replace these confusing strings with plain language, showing exactly who the user is interacting with, what their intent is, and what parameters are being executed.

“Blind signing has been responsible for billions in user losses. When transaction data appears as hexadecimal code, users approve transactions they don’t understand. Attackers exploit this relentlessly. Malicious smart contracts are indistinguishable from legitimate transactions, users unknowingly sign them, and lose everything. Clear Signing directly addresses this by making transactions human-readable before approval,” explained Tomáš Sušánka, CTO of Trezor.

Four-Pillar Solution for Clear Signing

To resolve the fragmentation of proprietary solutions, the working group has introduced a four-part infrastructure:

• Updated ERC-7730 (an open standard for describing transactions in human-readable formats);
• Decentralized registry (an off-chain registry neutrally hosted by the Ethereum Foundation for distributing these descriptors);
• Integrity and attestation framework (ERC-8176 and the Ethereum Attestation Service (EAS) allows independent auditors to verify descriptors while letting wallets define their own trust policies);
• Developer SDKs (tools for wallet integration and auditor verification workflows in languages such as React and Rust).

Ecosystem-Wide Collaboration

The effort is supported by a broad spectrum of industry leaders. Contributors include hardware and software wallets such as Ledger, Trezor, MetaMask, and Zknox; infrastructure providers like Fireblocks and Zama; and security firms such as Cyfrin. The Ethereum Foundation serves as a neutral steward for the project.

According to the information received by CoinScreamer, Trezor is planning to implement the Ethereum Foundation’s Clear Signing standard across its products over the coming months. ” We’re targeting the beginning of Q2 2026 for Clear Signing transaction decoding, converting complex hex data into a readable format, and the end of Q2 2026 for full human-readable signing implementation. We’re implementing this standard because it’s the right thing to do for our users. We hope that everyone in the industry implements this standard as well so the whole web3 ecosystem becomes safer for all users,” stated its CTO.

The working group is calling for immediate action across the industry: protocols are urged to provide human-readable descriptions, auditors are encouraged to attest to transaction behaviors, and wallet developers are expected to integrate these new signing experiences. The project’s ultimate goal is to ensure that users never sign a transaction they cannot meaningfully interpret.

DeFi & FinTech, Ethereum, News, Technology & Security